But if Yahweh makes a new thing, and the ground opens its mouth, and swallows them up with all that belong to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall understand that these men have despised Yahweh.”
Parallel Translations
-
But if Yahweh makes a new thing, and the ground opens its mouth, and swallows them up with all that belong to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall understand that these men have despised Yahweh.”
-
But if the LORD make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the LORD.
-
But if the LORD make a new thing, and the ground open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down alive into the pit, then ye shall understand that these men have despised the LORD.'
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (8)
Passages linked to Numbers 16:30 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 55:15 Let death come suddenly on them. Let them go down alive into Sheol. For wickedness is among them, in their dwelling.
- Numbers 16:33 So they, and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol. The earth closed on them, and they perished from among the assembly.
- Job 31:3 Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the workers of iniquity?
- Isaiah 28:21 For Yahweh will rise up as on Mount Perazim. He will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his unusual work, and bring to pass his act, his extraordinary act.
- Isaiah 43:19 Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs out now. Don’t you know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
- Isaiah 45:7 I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create calamity. I am Yahweh, who does all these things.
- Isaiah 45:12 I have made the earth, and created man on it. I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens. I have commanded all their army.
- Jeremiah 31:22 How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? For Yahweh has created a new thing in the earth: a woman will encompass a man.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (10 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Or, hell.
Or, hell.
Or, show a strange sight.
Read full note →
Or, deep and dark places of the earth.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Num 16:30 But if the LORD make a new…
Num 16:30 But if the LORD make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that [appertain] unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the LORD.
Ver. 30. Quick unto the pit.] Not into hell, as the Papists conclude from this text; for how could their houses and goods go down to hell? {Num 16:32} and who would not hope that some of them were innocent, some penitent? The punishment they suffered in being buried alive was very miserable; and so accounted by the heathens, who served their vestal virgins in this sort that had been deflowered.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Make a new thing, i.e. do such a work…
Make a new thing, i.e. do such a work as was never heard before.
Into the pit, i.e. into the grave which God thereby makes. The Hebrew word scheol sometimes signifies hell, and sometimes the grave, as Gen 37:35; Psa 55:15.
Read full note →
Have provoked the Lord by making his words and works to be nothing but my devices and artifices.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain But if the Lord make a new thing,.... Or…
But if the Lord make a new thing,.... Or "create a creation", or "creature" (s), what never was before, or put those persons to a death that none ever in the world died of yet; what that is he means is next expressed:
and the earth open her mouth and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them; their persons, their wives, children and substance:
Read full note →
and they go down quick into the pit; alive into the grave the opening earth makes for them; this is the new thing created; though the Rabbins say (t), the mouth of the earth, or the opening of the earth, was created from the days of the creation, that is, it was determined or decreed so early that it should be:
then ye shall understated that these men have provoked the Lord; by rising up against Moses and Aaron, and so against the Lord; by falsely accusing his servants, and endeavouring to set the people against them, and so alter the constitution of things in church and state.
(s) "creationem, creaverit", Pagninus, Montanus, Munster, Fagius; "creaturam", Vatablus, Drusius. (t) Pirke Abot, c. 5. sect. 6. Pirke Eliezer, c. 19.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 30. If the Lord make a new thing]…
Verse 30. If the Lord make a new thing] ואם בריאה יברא יהוה veim beriah yibra Yehovah, and if Jehovah should create a creation, i. e., do such a thing as was never done before.
And they go down quick into the pit] שאלה sheolah, a proof, among many others, that שאל sheol, signifies here a chasm or pit of the earth, and not the place called hell; for it would be absurd to suppose that their houses had gone to hell; and it would be wicked to imagine that their little innocent children had gone thither, though God was pleased to destroy their lives with those of their iniquitous fathers.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Hell. See Psalm liv. 16., and Proverbs i. 12.…
Hell. See Psalm liv. 16., and Proverbs i. 12. "They were consigned to the tomb before they were dead," (St. Optatus, B. i.,) while their impenitent souls were buried in hell. The souls of their infant children, which had no share in the rebellion, might be exempted from the latter part of their punishment. (Calmet) --- If some have the rashness to blame the severity of this judgment of God, let them shew the disparity between it and the various other accidents occasioned by earthquakes, &c., which involve millions of such "smiling infants" in destruction; or, if they do not infer from these misfortunes, that the laws of nature are unjust; neither ought they to conclude that the religion, delivered by God to Moses, was an imposture, or that the Jewish legislator was cruel. He continued a silent spectator of this transaction, which he was informed by the Spirit would surely take place, and could not be averted by his intercession, which had before rescued the less guilty multitude, ver. 22. (Haydock) --- "They descend into hell alive; that is, feeling their own perdition, who, imitating Core,....separate from the Church, and presently fall into heresy." (St. Augustine, ep. 93.)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 30. Make a new thing — Hebrew, create a…
30. Make a new thing — Hebrew, create a creation, that is, do a thing never done before. The crisis was momentous. The expression of Jehovah’s will must be decisive. An earthquake was probably not a new thing in the history of the world. Something different is demanded here.
Go down quick into the pit — A providential calamity which discriminates between the righteous and the wicked and destroys the latter shows that the world is ruled by a power which frowns upon sin.
Read full note →
Quick — R.V., “alive;” an old meaning of the word quick.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 30. into the pit] into Sheol, the place of…
30. into the pit] into Sheol, the place of departed human beings. It was thought of as lying beneath the earth, or deep within it.
We are probably to think of the catastrophe as taking place in the form of an earthquake; or possibly the tradition may have grown up as a popular explanation of some deep fissure or chasm in the rocks.
Read full note →
32b. and all the men … their goods] This half verse is the work of the compiler who combined the narratives. Korah’s company of adherents (‘the men that appertained unto K.’) were not swallowed up in the earth; they died afterwards by fire (Num_16:35).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (30) Make a new thing.—Literally, create a creation—i.e., do…
(30) Make a new thing.—Literally, create a creation—i.e., do something hitherto unknown.
Into the pit.—Literally, into Sheol.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Make a new thing. "Create a creation." arbyi hayriB.…
Make a new thing. "Create a creation." arbyi hayriB. Into the pit. Rather, "into Sheol." hlaov. Septuagint, eiv adou . Sheol is not "the pit," but Hades, the place of departed spirits, (Gen_37:35 Gen_42:38) which is regarded, according to the general instinct of mankind, as being "under the earth". (cf. Php_2:10 Rev_5:13) They were to go down "quick" into Sheol, because they were still alive at the moment that they were lost to sight for ever.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.